Kobe Bryant is on the 1st team - that’s given when you start the quiz.

Bryant’s clue says that all the players adjacent to him are on All-NBA 2nd team. This means that Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker, and David Lee are on the All-NBA 2nd team.

Dwyane Wade’s hint says that all the players who have won an NBA MVP are on the All-NBA 1st team. This means that Tim Duncan and LeBron James are on the All-NBA 1st team.

Tim Duncan’s hint says that the Clippers players ended up on All-NBA 3rd Team. This means that Chris Paul and Blake Griffin are on the All-NBA 3rd Team.

LeBron James’s hint says that none of the players in Tim Duncan and Paul George’s shared diagonal are on All-NBA 3rd Team. Tony Parker’s hint says that 3 rows end with an All-NBA 3rd teamer. Rows 1 and 2 end with a player on the All-NBA 3rd Team, but Row 4 doesn’t, and Row 5 can’t because Dwight Howard is part of Tim Duncan and Paul George’s shared diagonal. This leaves Row 3 as a row which has to end with an All-NBA 3rd teamer. Therefore, James Harden is on the All-NBA 3rd team.

Chris Paul’s hint says that rows 1, 3, and 5 have a player from each All-NBA team. That means that those three rows each have one player from the 1st team, one player from the 2nd team, and one player from the 3rd team. This means there are no more 3rd teamers in in James Harden’s row (Row 3) and there is one 3rd teamer in Row 5. Rows 1 and 2 are filled up, and since there have to be two more 3rd teamers (so that there are five 3rd teamers total), there has to be a 3rd teamer in Row 4. The only unoccupied spot in Row 4 is A4, so that means Marc Gasol must be on the All-NBA 3rd team.

James Harden’s hint says that Column A has 3 All-NBA first teamers, and so far, Kobe Bryant is the only player who is on the 1st team. There are now two players who we haven’t named to a team yet in Column A, and in order for Column A to have three 1st teamers, both of those players have to be on the 1st team. This means that Carmelo Anthony and Paul George are on the All-NBA 1st team.

Chris Paul’s hint says that Row 3 has one player from each All-NBA team, and so far it has a 1st and 3rd teamer. The only player not yet named to a team in Row 3 is Kevin Durant, and in order for Row 3 to have a player from each All-NBA team, Kevin Durant must be on the All-NBA 2nd team.

In Row 5 (which also needs one player from each All-NBA team), Carmelo Anthony is already on the 1st team, and Dwight Howard can’t be on the 3rd team (He is located in Tim Duncan and Paul George’s diagonal, which isn’t allowed to have any 3rd teamers), so Howard is on the All-NBA 2nd team.

Row 5 needs one player to be on each All-NBA team. The only All-NBA team not yet represented in Row 5 is the 3rd team, and the only player in Row 5 not to be named to an All-NBA team yet is Russell Westbrook. Therefore, Russell Westbrook is on the All-NBA 3rd team.